Winter Haven family survives as tornado targets their home

Tuesday

WINTER HAVEN - A small wooden birdhouse was untouched although the 25-foot oak tree it is mounted on laid on the remnants of a house destroyed by a water spout turned tornado Sunday night.

The three-bedroom home at 3460 Lakeview Drive S.E. on Lake Winterset was one of at least five destroyed on the tornado's 10-mile path through Polk County, according to county officials.

On Monday, Patrick Frankenburger and his wife, Gail, were working to pick up what was left of their home, the roof of which was thrown nearly a block away by the tornado.

The Frankenburgers narrowly survived their brush with the twister Sunday just after picking up Gail Frankenburger's 80-year-old mother from Bartow.

The couple had gone to get her because she's terrified of bad weather, Patrick Frankenburger said.

The three hadn't been in the house five minutes when the tornado appeared "without any warning whatsoever," sending the grandmother diving into a room used as an office. Gail Frankenburger dove on top of her, then Patrick Frankenburger on top of the two women.

"By the time I got on top of her it was over with," Patrick Frankenburger said. "It lasted about five seconds.

"We ended up in the one room that still had the roof on it."

Countywide, Sunday's storms damaged 25 homes, destroying about five or six houses, according to Polk County Fire Chief David Cash, creating about $5 million in damages and causing three minor injuries.

Polk County Sheriff's deputies also attributed a fatal crash on Lake Shipp Drive South in Winter Haven to the storm. Marie Isabel Barajas, 21, of Wahneta, was a passenger in a car that began to spin after driving through standing water and then struck another vehicle. She died enroute to the hospital, according to the Sheriff's Office.

About 9,000 Tampa Electric customers in Winter Haven lost power because of the tornado Sunday with about 2,000 to 3,000 still without power Monday morning. By Monday afternoon, TECO had restored power to most customers.

Joe Jones, 65, was one of those injured. He was standing near a window in his bedroom when the glass exploded.

He and his wife, Anita, were tracking the storm on television when the storm knocked out their home's power. And when Joe Jones went upstairs to get a battery-powered lantern, he stopped to look out a window.

"I like looking at the weather, but as I looked out the window, all of sudden the trees and the bushes were just swirling," Joe Jones said. "Then I thought, 'I don't need to be in front of this window right now.' "

Just as Jones stepped back, it exploded, sending shards into the home, one slicing his right leg and leaving a 3-inch gash an inch deep that sent Jones to the hospital for stitches.

The wound is minor, but it damaged a muscle, Jones said, limiting the movement of his left foot.

The Joneses had to find a new place to stay as water dripped from the damaged roof, through soaked walls on the second floor and out of chandeliers and lights hanging from the first floor ceiling.

Buckets were scattered through the first floor to catch the drips while second floor ceilings collapsed under the weight of pooling water, covering the couple's belongings in a wet crust of pink insulation.